Ten Trees: Varieties of Tree Pose

 

Discover how to take a basic yoga tree pose (vrksasana) and make it into something playful, creative and interesting. From tree pose with namaste hands to tricky tree and beyond you’re sure to find inspiration for your next kids yoga class in Ten Trees. All these versions of tree pose build balance, focus and concentration while increasing creativity, poise and grace. And best of all they’re FUN!

Which is your fave?

How many varieties can you come up with?

Kids Yoga Poses – Chair Pose – Utkatasana

Discover how to energize your day with chair pose (utkatasana). This is a wonderful pose to build strength in the lower body and will vitalize your body and mind. This video includes breathing techniques and a twist that will quickly chase away fatigue and lethargy leaving you feeling invigorated and ready to meet new challenges.

Chair Pose – Utkatasana

Have you ever felt really sluggish and tired at school. Here’s a great way to energize your day. It’s called chair pose, utkatasana.

To do this pose you need to stand up nice and tall with your feet slightly apart. Then, bend your knees and stick your bum out as if you were sitting on a chair. From there, reach your arms up with your palms facing together. This is a fantastic pose to work the hips and the thighs and improve your lower body strength.

To really get a boost in your day we’re going to combine utkatasana with a breathing technique. As you inhale, reach up. Exhale, breathe out and bring your arms down with a ‘ha.’  Inhale reach out, exhale ‘ha’. Again. Up and out. Inhale up, exhale out. One more time. Inhale up and exhale out. And then return to standing.

Shake your legs out a bit before we go into the next part of this pose.

Chair Pose with a Twist

For the second part we are going to do utkatasana with a twist. So standing in mountain pose with your feet slightly apart. Come into chair pose, sitting your bum down, keeping your knees parallel to one another. Bring your hands to namaste in front of your heart. Inhale lengthen your spine. Exhale bring your elbow to your knee. Press your hands together. Press your knee against your upper arm. And keep breathing throughout the pose.

This kind of gets hard to do and you might feel your legs start to shake a little bit. That’s OK. Don’t worry about it.

Inhale come back to centre. Exhale and twist to the other side. Perfect. Very nicely done. Keep breathing. Remember you are working at increasing your energy and your strength. One more breath. Finally come back to centre and stand up.

And that’s utkatasana. It’ll help increase your energy whenever you are feeling tired.

For more kids yoga poses visit the alphabetical list of poses.

Classroom Yoga: Chair Dog

Downward Facing Dog pose is a fantastic yoga pose to increase health and vitality while building strength and flexibility. However, it is not always feasible in a classroom to move desks out of the way and get on the floor to do yoga. The solution is Chair Dog, Downward Facing Dog pose with a chair. This is an excellent way to benefit from this pose in a classroom or office setting while making it accessible for everyone including those with special needs, weight issues, carpal tunnel/wrist concerns or overly tight hamstrings/back body. If a chair isn’t handy feel free to use a desk, counter top or even the wall.

Chair Dog (Downdog with a Chair)

Laura is going to show us how to do Downward Facing Dog pose with a chair, otherwise known as Chair Dog. Using a chair place it in front of you. Now, grabbing onto the back of the chair with your hands, you want to place your feet a little bit further back so that eventually your head comes down in between your arms and you make an ‘L’ with your body. If it’s difficult to make an ‘L’ because of tightness in the hamstrings or lower back, bend your knees and then push your hips back as far as you can push them. Your back will gradually lengthen and flatten. From there, if it is comfortable, straighten your legs maintaining the length through your back.

Hold this pose for a few breaths feeling the energy from your fingertips through to your hips and from your hips down into the ground and your feet. When you are ready come back to standing. And that’s Chair Dog.

If you enjoyed this video be share it with a friend and visit our YouTube Channel for more great yoga poses for kids and teenagers.

Kids Yoga Poses – Star Pose

Star pose is a great pose to teach balance and coordinate movement with music. Star pose is ideal for pre-school and school aged children. Children with special needs also enjoy this pose. You can do this pose individually but in this video we’re doing it with a partner. Practicing this kids yoga pose with a partner provides an opportunity for success for individuals with developing balance skills to enjoy a sense of accomplishment. In addition it builds social skills and develops the coordination necessary to transfer weight from one side to the other, increasing strength and core stability.

 

Star Pose

Hello, I’m Donna with Yogainmyschool.comand today I’m here with my niece, Nadia. Nadia and I are going to show you how to do star pose. So if you’ve ever wondering what you can do with pre-school children and yoga here is a great activity.

Let’s make a five pointed star with our bodies. First extend your legs nice and wide. Then reach your arms out. Now twinkle your fingers. Next twinkle your toes. And can you sing Twinkle Little Star with me?

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are,

Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky,

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.

That was perfect, thank you so much.

Kids Yoga Poses – Shark Pose looks Suspiciously like Dolphin Pose

Two notes. That’s all you need. And everyone knows they are in for Shark Pose. The Jaws Theme  Song continues to terrify and kids far and wide can’t wait to get into this basic inversion.

 

Shark Pose/Dolphin Pose

Hello, this is Donna from Yogainmyschool and I’m here today with Alea to show you how to do Shark Pose, known in most adult yoga classes as Dolphin Pose.

Hi, my name is Alea and I’m eight years old.

  • The first thing you need to do, to do Shark Pose is come onto your hands and knees. Do you see how her hands are below her shoulders and her knees are below her hips? That’s perfect.
  • The second step is to lower yourself to the ground on your elbows, intertwining your fingers.
  • The third step, curl your toes under and lift your hips high in the air. Let your head hang loose. You can shake it ‘yes.’ You can shake it ‘no.’ And do you see how her body forms a triangle. That is supposed to be the fin of the shark.

Shark Pose is a really good pose for strengthening the shoulders, the chest and building stamina. After a few breaths, you can come on down, and return to sitting.

Thanks Alea for showing us how to do Shark Pose.

Visit the Alphabetical List of Yoga Poses for a complete listing of yoga poses that kids love.

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